Many factors gave the reds the advantage over the whites in the Russian civil war of 1918-21. They include aims, geography, foreign intervention, leadership and support. The first three will be examined in detail.

The Bolsheviks had one aim: to take over the government and create a socialist Russia. The Whites were made up of many opponents of the Reds: some were Tsarists who wanted the Tsar and the old system of government back. Some wanted a military dictatorship. The Liberals wanted a constitutional monarchy like that of Great Britain. They all wanted different kinds of government for Russia, thus not having a common aim. In fact, the only common aim they had was to defeat the Bolsheviks. Lack of agreement led to a lack of unity. Where the Reds worked together with great organisational skill to deal with attacks, the Whites would quarrel over aims. This lack of unity was the first factor that made the Reds inherently superior.

White Army propaganda poster. The caption reads, "...

Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips (4...

Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench (center) chat...

Geography was also a key factor. Russia was huge, having 1/6 of the world's land, covering two continents with many climates. Communications and transport were dificult as there were few paved roads and the only thing connecting East and West Russia was the Trans-Siberian railway. The Reds had control of the railway system and had a special train (led by Trotsky) that could effectively coordinate attacks and tactics and send out troops where needed. The Reds also had control of the main industrialparts of Western Russia and was close to the cities. The Whites however were mostly scattered all around and did not have very good communication, if the leaders wanted to communicate at all. The Reds with their geographical advantage were able to deal with the White opposition one defeat at a time, and deal with the troops...

More European History essays:

The czech army consisted of prisoners and deserters from the Austria-Hungarian empire from the provinces of Bohemia and Slovakia. The Tsar gave his consent to set up a national force which they became to fight against Austria-hungary in the summer of 1916 with their leader called Tomas Masaryk. ...

... Trotsky and the red army 2. Weakness of the White armies 3. War Communism 4. Attitude of the peasants 5. Propaganda 6. Red terror- Cheka 7. Allied Withdrawal Juring the Russian civil war Leon Trotsky played a major role. He was commander and chief of the red army ...

... great impact on the outcome of the Russian revolution , but maintained an opposition to the Bolshevik ... civil war (1917-1920) made progress almost impossible. Lenin, with the assistance of Trotsky and the red army was able to quench the resistance. After the war ...

... government from all sides. This was called the Russian civil war (1918-1921). This attack was unsuccessful because the allies and all the different white generals attacked at different times while attacking at once would be easy to defeat such a small Red (communist) army ...

... Bolsheviks rename themselves the Communists -Trotsky ends Russian involvement in WWI by giving many lands to Germany -a Civil War was happening all this time in Russia between the Trotsky led Red Army vs. the White Army-many different enemy armies ... Great Britain ...

... Red Army was still intact, and the Russians would never demobilise as long as the Americans had the bomb. It was a "˜catch 22' situation with neither side feeling able or willing to back down. Given hindsight, the onset of the Cold War following World War ...

8 pages95Mar/20015.0

Students & Profs. say about us:

"Good news: you can turn to other's writing help. WriteWork has over 100,000 sample papers"